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Mono-type in OU: Part 2 (Ground)

Note: this is a mono-type team to be used in the standard metagame not the mono-type metagame

Guess who? My Ice team? Left them in the cold. Still in the mood to stick to weather and Fire is so typical (Charizard, Ninetails, Arcanine, Torkoal, Infernape, and Victini) and doesn't do that great so I'm going with Ground.

Weather, we need it thus Hippowdon is an obvious choice. The EV spread balances out the defences. The moves rely on Stealth Rock from the team, shuffling the foes around as they accumulate damage. Slack Off aids with healing while Stockpile increases the defences making the shuffle last longer. Earthquake is there for reliable damage which Flying types might resist but they are weak to Stealth Rock.

My friend once cosplayed as a Dugtrio; it was boxy. Standard set, send it out against a weather starter, trap them, hit them, take a hit with the Focus Sash, and knockout the foe. Politoed is still troublesome but Nidoking and Garchomp can fix that.

He who has been banished multiple times is back for more. With a dirty base 102 Speed, the land shark is nasty at offence to boot, it has a good amount of bulk. Swords Dance increases that power to greater heights while Substitute and Leftovers help. For attacking, there is the always handy Earthquake coupled with Dual Chop. Though Outrage would be more preferable for attacking, Dual Chop can smash Substitutes, Sturdy, and Focus Sashes and can do a lot of damage after an Attack boost. Garchomp also finds home on this team defensively too, being a Dragon type, it resists Grass and Water.

To balance out the physical attackers and physical defenders, Gastrodon finds itself a nice home on this team. Its immune to Water moves thanks to Water Absorb and resists Ice moves. Basic stuff is basic, Recover and Toxic to stall with Scald to attack and possibly burn the foe. Stealth Rock is a handy and helps Hippowdon rack up the damage against those it refuses to fight using Whirlwind. On top of that, the neutrality to Ice helps a lot.

Even without investment, Nidoqueen's attacks still pack a punch due to Sheer Force. This girl is used to help the team set up and abuse its bulk. Toxic Spikes will aid by poisoning the foes and slowly draining there health which works well with Hippowdon and Gastrodon's bulk and Garchomp's ability to stall with Substitute. To aid in stalling along with giving a bit of health is Protect. Nidoqueen can also absorb Toxic Spikes; the only entry hazard (bar multiple layers of Spikes) that could really hamper my team. That said, it is also immune to Toxic which helps a lot. For offence we have Earth Power as the main attack and Ice Beam for coverage. The Poison type helps out as it gives neutrality to Grass.

Lastly we have Therian Landorus, a powerhouse who can take hits to boot thanks to Intimate. Landorus requires prediction when using Gravity as the foe might just switch out or smacking it hard with a powerful attack. Gravity helps the team a lot by increasing the accuracy of moves, allowing Toxic Spikes to poison aerial foes, and making everyone vulnerable to Ground type moves. Maximizing offence while having Earthquake and Stone Edge as the main attacks and having U-turn for momentum. Landorus' Flying type also helps out as it is immune to Ground type moves that Nidoqueen is weak to along with neutrality to Grass.

Last edited by ParaChomp; 3rd February 2013 at 5:30 AM.
Reason: changes

Well I think you should swap Dual Chop for Dragon Claw or Outrage in this case as that miss can prove devastating and it won't be really effective on Sturdy users as the common users are Skarmory and Forretress which take abysmal damage from Dual Chop with only Donphan taking decent damage.

I also think Gravity would be extremely beneficial to a Mono-Ground team as STAB Earthquakes from base 110 Attack from the likes of Garchomp, Hippowdon, and Landorus-T assuming you use Landorus as your Gravity setter would deal heavy damage to opponents and allows Dugtrio to basically trap anything now since Gravity Brits those Levitaters and Flying types down.

shell smash closter seems like it wrecks this team, not much you can do to counter him though gastrodon can't switch into an icicle spear, and even if it comes in without taking an attack, I doubt it can do musch in return...

I also noticed you seem to lack priority on this team other than dugtrios, so anyting that carries ice shard (Like mamo/abomasnow or even cloyster itself, actually even donphan can be trouble) are huge threats.

and celebi(or shaymin) will give you nightmares, between giga drain and earth power it wrecks your whole team, landorus could probably deal lots of damage with u-turn and then ou can kill it with a scarfer or sumthing....

You probably already know this, but any pokemon with a combination of 2 different water/ice/grass/ground attacks will dent your team, and if they have 3 of them (which isn't too rare, with scald/ice beam/ hp grass, being a common moveset on water types...
So mainly watch out for water typessh, and celebi, because if it carries hidden power ice (I have no Idea how common that is really) it punches HUGE holes into your team.

I merely gave you what troubles your team, since I cant fix it myself xD, for celeebi you could try landorus with U-turn, or sand rush sandslash with X-scissor.... I don't know what ou can do about the lac of priority....but you know, good luck with that xD

Why do I have to be picky and further limit myself? Mamoswine already has a spot on my Ice team and I wish to make a mono-type team for each type without using the same Pokémon twice so though it's an excellent choice, I'm going to ignore my common sense your advice and say "no".

Anyways, I swamped out Steelix for Landorus and Nidoking for Nidoqueen (take that monarchy). Let us begin further questions. Dugtrio can take care of Ninetales no problem but Politoed with HP investment can still easily defeat the moles, some suggestions? Nidoqueen is too dependent on Landorus for Gravity support, what moves should I use? Should I forego Stealth Rock for another offensive option or Protect? Ice types are still as troublesome as ever, should I swap out Stone Edge for Superpower on Landorus? Should I change Landorus' EV spread?

Um, I think putting Rocks > Stockpile on Hippowdon would be a better choice as Stockpile, I just don't think you'll be able toget enough boosts for it to be effective. STAB Water types, and other special SE moves will still put it in critical condition. This basically frees up basically a Pokemon slot from Nidoqueen as I don't think it'll really help although Gravity + Toxic Spikes could work, haven't really tried however. If you're really set on keeping Nidoqueen, one of the coverage options have to go as relying on 70% accuracy moves just isn't going to cut it. Earth Power is probably the most reliable STAB it has, or just go BoltBeam.
As for Duggy, it doesn't really have many options. You could try something like Sub + Hone Claws to try and take out Politoed but meh, probably doesn't have the power to break through even with a boost. If anything I'd probably swap Dugtrio with like errr, Sandslash. It has great speed with Sand Rush and can utilize a similar set to Excadrill,

Um, I think putting Rocks > Stockpile on Hippowdon would be a better choice as Stockpile, I just don't think you'll be able toget enough boosts for it to be effective. STAB Water types, and other special SE moves will still put it in critical condition. This basically frees up basically a Pokemon slot from Nidoqueen as I don't think it'll really help although Gravity + Toxic Spikes could work, haven't really tried however. If you're really set on keeping Nidoqueen, one of the coverage options have to go as relying on 70% accuracy moves just isn't going to cut it. Earth Power is probably the most reliable STAB it has, or just go BoltBeam.
As for Duggy, it doesn't really have many options. You could try something like Sub + Hone Claws to try and take out Politoed but meh, probably doesn't have the power to break through even with a boost. If anything I'd probably swap Dugtrio with like errr, Sandslash. It has great speed with Sand Rush and can utilize a similar set to Excadrill,

You could opt for a coverage move over Rapid Spin if you'd like. Anyways I don't know if it'll be that beneficial to you over Duggy's trapping capabilities but you could try.

Okay, for Nidoqueen, I replaced Blizzard, Focus Blast, and Stone Edge for Earth Power, Ice Beam, and Protect. As for Hippowdon, Stockpile has come in handy quite a bit and I think I might just stick to solely Gastrodon using it. As for Sandslash, I am tempted to replace Dugtrio for it. With Toxic Spikes in mind, should I swap Toxic on Gastrodon for something else? Also, I'll ask again, Superpower over Stone Edge on Landorus?

Anyways, I'll wait for some more comments to come in before I change anything else.